Washington Examiner editorial: Seventy-five years ago today, Congress declared war on Japan. U.S. declarations of war against Germany and Italy followed four days later, and Congress hasn't declared war since. Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Granada, Kosovo, Bosnia, Yemen, Lebanon, Panama, Somalia -- America fought its wars in all these places without an official declaration. Usually Congress passed some sort of authorization, but often, most recently in Libya, even that step was skipped. The executive has steadily seized war powers from the legislative branch, where the Constitution places it. And the legislative branch has been happy to abdicate its responsibility. President Obama, in his final anti-terrorism speech in office, called on Congress Tuesday to reclaim its duty. read more

Video and images have emerged from inside the doomed Oakland warehouse depicting a squalid 'hell-hole' not fit to live in.

Dark and dingy rooms don't look fit for humans, with exposed electrical wires and panels, venting pipes and piles of junk and old clothes everywhere.

Tenant Shelley Mack, who disclosed the pictures, also revealed that there were three fires while she lived there caused by electrical faults.

'They were isolated fires, a transponder blew up and electrical sockets got overloaded, everybody was very aware that the place was a fire hazard, it was filled with old dried wood and wooden furniture.

"There were power cords and extension cords hooked up to extension cords everywhere. To get across all the place to heat and light all the trailers. Everybody would plug in and they'd get overloaded, refrigerators and microwaves and cell phones, lots of electrical equipment and massive stereo equipment, any system would have been overloaded."

Of the nearly 700 counties that twice sent Obama to the White House, a stunning one-third flipped to support Trump.

Trump also won 194 of the 207 counties that voted for Obama either in 2008 or 2012.

By contrast, of those 2,200 counties that never supported Obama, Clinton was only able to win six. That's just 0.3 percent crossover to the Democratic side.

Clinton had more opportunities to peel counties from the Republicans. Historically, Democrats rely on few (but very populous) counties to chart a path to victory. Republicans, by contrast, draw support from a wide swath of many more rural and suburban counties.

For starters, I am tired of hearing about our democracy and the popular vote. We are not a democracy, and a whole lot of people should be really glad about that, too, because in a democracy, mob rule applies. The majority is the boss of everybody, and if we had been a democracy in 1865 slavery would have never been abolished. If we had been a democracy in 1920, the women would have never gotten the vote. If we had been a democracy in 1964 and 1965, those historic pieces of civil rights legislation would never have been approved. In fact, if we had been a democracy in 1776, the Declaration of Independence would never have been adopted because the majority of the colonists were afraid to pursue independence, just like a majority of Americans opposed women's suffrage and abolition and sweeping civil rights reform. read more

The breeding population of the lesser snow goose exceeds 5 million birds, an increase of more than 300% since the mid-1970s. The population is increasing at a rate of more than 5% per year. Non-breeding geese (juveniles or adults that fail to nest successfully) are not included in this estimate, so the total number of geese is even higher. Lesser snow goose population indices are the highest they have been since population records have been kept, and evidence suggests that large breeding populations are spreading to previously untouched sections of the Hudson Bay coastline.